Version 0.22.0 of PowerToys for Windows 10 now allows you to mute the audio and video when you use your PC's webcam

You may or may not be familiar with Windows 10 PowerToys by now. If it is the second case, before continuing, make it clear that it is a set of Microsoft tools that allow the user to add certain extras to the operating system in the form of new features. Tools of which we already explained how they could be installed on a PC and how they have been receiving successive improvements. This is the case of this one that concerns us

Microsoft released version 0 today.22.0 of their PowerToys for Windows 10. This is a development version with some experimental features for those who want something new. In this case, it is an add-on that allows you to mute the audio and video in Windows 10 when we are using any program that uses our microphone and our webcam.

Mute video and audio

Version v0.21.1 mainly contains a number of bug fixes, but a new experimental version v0.22.0 will simply press a key to mute the audio it picks up the microphone and block the video that we are transmitting through the webcam.

PowerToys uses the API to mute the microphone in Windows and the virtual driver for the webcam that what it does is deceive to the camera so that it thinks it's picking up image content even though it's actually just getting a black background.

You only need to select the camera within the options of the PowerToys. These are the key combinations:

• Win + N to toggle audio and video at the same time
• Win + Shift + O to toggle video
• Win + Shift + A to toggle microphone

Any application that makes use of video or audio can see disabled both functions with the press of a key, in the same way that with another press they can resume their normal activity.

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Of course, they warn that version 0.22.0 of the PowerToys may cause operating problems on some laptops, which is why Microsoft has released this feature in a test version and not within the general version 0.21.0 of PowerToys."

To download the latest version of the PowerToys you can do so at this GitHub link.